Republicans draft four new bills just days after Little’s historic veto
By Eric Valentine
Idaho’s ballot initiative process will remain unchanged. Gov. Brad Little’s political legacy may not.
The first-year Republican governor vetoed a highly partisan and contentious bill many conservative lawmakers in both the Senate and House wanted to make law and many Democratic leaders had been calling a “revenge on voters.” The high-profile decision indicates the governor may be more moderate than many of the Republican lawmakers in this red state.
Little’s decision thwarted an effort that would have—essentially—made it harder to get voter initiatives on ballots. Senate Bill 1159 would have increased the number of petition signatures required, increased the required number of legislative districts represented in the petitions, and decreased the amount of time to gather signatures.
It came on the heels of the November 2018 election which saw voters approve a ballot initiative to expand Medicaid coverage to more Idahoans. Democrats said that was no coincidence. Supporters of the bill said the reconfiguration of requirements had to do with properly representing rural districts that rarely see ballot petitions come their way, since all legislative districts do not need to be represented. The bill was seeking to double the amount of legislative districts represented by petition signatures.
“The governor made the best choice for the people of Idaho,” Rep. Mat Erpelding (D-Boise) said. “When the legislature ignored the hours and hours of testimony against this legislation, the governor was listening.”
Monday Is A New Day
By Monday, Rep. Sage Dixon (R-Ponderey) brought four new bills that were formerly different parts of the old bill. By breaking up the bill into separate parts, there could be an element or elements of the bill the governor would not veto. The Democratic members of the committee pointed out several procedural rules that were broken.
“We are well past the March 4 deadline to introduce new bills,” Rep. Brooke Green (D-Boise) said. “The people have spoken; they do not want the legislature to make the initiative process more difficult. I cannot understand why legislators would fly in the face of what their constituents have asked and introduce yet another bill to silence the voters.”
One of the bills required that a citizen initiative has a fiscal note and identifies a funding source.
“This year especially, the majority has proposed several bills with inaccurate or misleading fiscal notes. Citizens should not be held to more strict guidelines than the legislators,” Green argued.
Even more contentious, the committee voted to send the legislation to the House floor without having a public hearing. Although this is just a recommendation, the Democratic members of the committee called this move “extremely inappropriate.”
“I am saddened that the members of the committee voted to remove the public’s ability to comment on these pieces of legislation,” Rep. John Gannon (D-Boise) said. “The public should have the opportunity to testify for and against bills, especially when they are this contentious. The majority party is attempting to completely silence the voters both inside and outside of the statehouse.”